In many applications it is necessary to turn a member having a shaped driving head many revolutions in a single direction followed by turning in the opposite direction. Prior wrenches have typically been of one of two general designs. The first type includes an integrally formed handle and working head which engages the shaped part of the member to be turned. While having the advantage of small cost, most integrally formed wrenches of this kind have the disadvantage of being capable of only turning the member a fraction of a turn before the wrench must be completely disengaged and reengaged at different angular orientation in preparation for the next fractional turn. This process is obviously time consuming, arduous and fatiguing so that efforts have been made to design "speed" wrenches which may be used to grip the member while turning in one direction and which may be moved in the opposite direction without the requirement of disengagement of the wrench from the member. These "speed" wrenches, exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,905,255; 3,850,057; 3,762,244; and 3,745,859, however, have the disadvantage that in order to obtain a reversal of direction, the wrench must be disengaged from the member and reengaged after the wrench has been reversed end to end or turned over side to side. Space limitations sometimes render such wrench reversal both awkward and undesirable.
The second type of wrench commonly used for turning a member many revolutions is a ratchet type of wrench having moving parts for engaging one or more of a plurality of teeth of the member to be turned. Exemplary of this second type of wrench are the ratchets of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,080,851; 3,338,359; 2,673,632; and 1,255,210. Ratchets of this type have the disadvantage, however, of being expensive to manufacture due to the moving parts which are prone to early wear related failure. Additionally, such ratchets are frequently locked onto the shaft to be turned so as to be incapable of removal, which fact occasionally causes difficulty not only due to the space required for the projecting wrench handle but also due to the fact that unauthorized persons, such as vandals, are consequently able to release the load.
It is therefore apparent that a need has previously been felt for a simple, inexpensive integrally formed bi-directional wrench which is removable from a member such as a turnbuckle load binder.